Introduction

The Radeon HD 6570 and Radeon HD 6670 were originally released at the beginning of the year as OEM products, i.e., available only for computer manufacturers. Last month, AMD released them on the retail market with a suggested price of USD 80 and USD 100, respectively.

The main competitor for the Radeon HD 6570 is the GeForce GT 440. They cost the same and are available in two different versions: with 512 MB GDDR5 memory running at a higher speed or with 1 GB DDR3 memory running at a lower speed.

The Radeon HD 6570 GDDR5 version has its memory running at 4 GHz (64 GB/s); while on the GeForce GT 440 GDDR5 version this clock rate is 3.2 GHz (51.2 GB/s). On the DDR3 version of both video cards the memory is accessed at 1.8 GHz (28.8 GB/s).

As the two versions cost the same, you will have to decide between having more memory or more memory bandwidth (i.e., available speed for the GPU to access the memory chips).

The sample AMD sent us is of the 512 MB GDDR5 version, and we are going to compare it against both versions of GeForce GT 440. We also included in our comparison a GeForce GT 430 and a Radeon HD 5570, both with 1 GB DDR3. In the table below, we compare the main specs of the video cards included in our review. They are all DirectX 11 parts. The prices listed below do not include rebates. Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.

Video Card	Core Clock	Shader Clock	Memory Clock (Real)	Memory Clock (Effective)	Memory Interface	Memory Transfer Rate	Memory	Shaders	Price
GeForce GT 430	700 MHz	1.4 GHz	900 MHz	1.8 GHz	128-bit	28.8 GB/s	1 GB DDR3	96	USD 70
GeForce GT 440	810 MHz	1.62 GHz	900 MHz	1.8 GHz	128-bit	28.8 GB/s	1 GB DDR3	96	USD 76 – 90
GeForce GT 440	810 MHz	1.62 GHz	1.6 GHz	3.2 GHz	128-bit	51.2 GB/s	512 MB GDDR5	96	USD 76 – 90
Radeon HD 5570	650 MHz	650 MHz	900 MHz	1.8 GHz	128-bit	28.8 GB/s	1 GB DDR3	400	USD 65 – 70
Radeon HD 6570	650 MHz	650 MHz	2 GHz	4 GHz	128-bit	64 GB/s	512 MB GDDR5	480	USD 76 - 80

You can compare the specs of these video cards with other video cards by taking a look at our AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table and NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table tutorials. 

Now let’s take a complete look at the reference model of the Radeon HD 6570.

The AMD Radeon HD 6570

Below we have an overall look at the AMD reference model of the Radeon HD 6570. It doesn’t require any additional power connector, and it is a low-profile video card, meaning that you can install it on a low-profile case by replacing its rear bracket. The video card we received still carries the ATI brand, however, AMD explained that this happened because this was a pre-production sample, and the final video cards don’t carry this logo.

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Figure 1: AMD Radeon HD 6570 reference model

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Figure 2: AMD Radeon HD 6570 reference model

This video card has one DVI-D, one HDMI, and one VGA connector.

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Figure 3: Video connectors

The AMD Radeon HD 6570 (Cont’d)

In Figure 4, you can see the video card with its cooler removed. It uses only solid capacitors and ferrite-core coils (which make the regulator present higher efficiency because they present lower energy loss than iron-core coils). The voltage regulator circuit has one phase for the graphics chip and one phase for the memory chips, which is a low-end configuration.

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Figure 4: Video card with the cooler removed

The GPU heatsink can be seen in Figures 5 and 6. It has a copper base, aluminum fins, and a 50 mm fan.

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Figure 5: The GPU heatsink

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Figure 6: The GPU heatsink

The Radeon HD 6570 reference model uses four 1 Gbit GDDR5 memory chips, making its 512 MB memory (1 Gbit x 4 = 512 MB). The chips used are H5GQ1H24AFR-T0C parts from Hynix, which support up to 2 GHz (4 GHz DDR), and since this video card memory is also accessed at 2 GHz (4 GHz DDR), there is no margin for you to increase the memory clock rate while keeping the chips inside the maximum they support. Of course, you can always try to overclock the memory chips above their specs.

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Figure 7: Memory chips

Before seeing the performance results, let’s recap the main features of this video card.

Main Specifications

The main specifications for the reference model of the Radeon HD 6570 video card include:

• Graphics chip: AMD Radeon HD 6570 running at 650 MHz
• Memory: 512 MB GDDR5 memory (128-bit interface) from Hynix (H5GQ1H24AFR-T0C), running at 2 GHz (4 GHz, DDR)
• Bus type: PCI Express x16 2.0
• Video Connectors: One DVI-D, one HDMI, and one VGA
• Video Capture (VIVO): No
• Cables and adapters that come with this board: NA
• Number of CDs/DVDs that come with this board: NA
• Games included: NA
• Programs included: NA
• More Information: http://www.amd.com
• MSRP in the US: USD 80

How We Tested

During our benchmarking sessions, we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable was the video card being tested.

Hardware Configuration

• CPU: Core i3-2100 (3.1 GHz, 3 MB L2 memory cache)
• Motherboard: Intel DH67BL (0110 BIOS)
• Memories: Two 1 GB Crucial CT12864BA1339 modules (DDR3-1333/PC3-10600, CL9, 1.5 V), configured at 1333 MHz
• Hard disk drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB (WD1001FALS, SATA-300, 7200 rpm, 32 MB buffer)
• Video monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 305T (30” LCD, 2560x1600)
• Power Supply: OCZ StealthXStream 400 W
• CPU Cooler: Intel stock

Software Configuration

• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
• Video resolution: 2560x1600 @ 60 Hz

Driver Versions

• AMD video driver version: Catalyst 11.3 (Radeon HD 5670)
• AMD video driver version: 8.84.2 (Radeon HD 6670)
• NVIDIA video driver version: 270.61
• Intel Inf driver version: 9.2.0.1030

Software Used

• 3DMark 11 Professional 1.0.1
• Aliens vs. Predator + Benchmark Tool
• Call of Duty 4 – Patch 1.7
• Crysis Warhead – Patch 1.1 + HOC Bench Crysis Warhead Benchmark Tool 1.1.1
• Far Cry 2 – Patch 1.03
• Lost Planet 2
• StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty – Patch 1.3.2

Error Margin

We adopted a 3% error margin. Thus, differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.

Call of Duty 4

Call of Duty 4 is a DirectX 9 game implementing high-dynamic range (HDR) and its own physics engine, which is used to calculate how objects interact. For example, if you shoot, exactly what will happen to the object when the bullet hits it? Will it break? Will it move? Will the bullet bounce back? It gives a more realistic experience to the user.

To get accurate results, we had to disable the 80 FPS limit in the game. To do this, input the command, “/seta com max fps 1000” (minus the quotes) into the console (` key). It can be set to any number greater than 200.

We ran this program at two 16:10 widescreen resolutions, 1440x900 and 1680x1050, maxing out all image quality controls (i.e., everything was set to the maximum values in the Graphics and Texture menus). We used the internal game benchmarking feature, running a demo provided by NVIDIA called “wetwork.” We are putting this demo here for downloading if you want to run your own benchmarks. We ran the demo five times, and the results below are the average number of frames per second (FPS) achieved by each video card.

Call of Duty 4 - Maximum	1440x900	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	68.4
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	62.1	10%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	56.8	20%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	54.2	26%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	48.4	41%

Call of Duty 4 - Maximum	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	53.9
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	45.8	18%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	42.6	27%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	40.4	33%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	37.6	43%

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a very popular DirectX 9 game that was released in 2010. Though this game uses an old version of DirectX, the number of textures that can be represented on one screen can push most of the top-end graphics cards to their limits (especially when the graphics settings are set at “ultra”). StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty uses its own physics engine that is bound to the CPU and thus does not benefit from PhysX.

We tested this game at 1440x900 and 1680x1050. The quality of the game was set to the “medium” preset, disabling both anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. We then used FRAPS to collect the frame rate of a replay on the “Unit Testing” custom map. We used a battle between very large armies to stress the video cards.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty	1440x900	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	82.5
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	78.1	6%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	77.7	6%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	76.8	7%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	76.4	8%

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	76.5
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	73.6	4%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	73.5	4%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	71.6	7%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	69.5	10%

Crysis Warhead

Crysis Warhead is a DirectX 10 game based on the same engine as the original Crysis, but optimized (it runs under DirectX 9.0c when installed on Windows XP).

We used the HardwareOC Crysis Warhead Benchmark Tool to collect the data for this test. We ran this program at 1440x900 and 1680x1050 at “high” image quality (but with no anti-aliasing and no anisotropic filtering) and using the Airfield demo. The results below are the number of frames per second achieved by each video card.

Crysis Warhead	1440x900	Difference
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	28.2	8%
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	26.2
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	26.1	0%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	25.4	3%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	25.2	4%

Crysis Warhead	1680x1050	Difference
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	22.4	3%
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	21.8
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	20.2	8%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	20.2	8%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	19.8	10%

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 is based on an entirely new game engine called Dunia, which is DirectX 10 when played under Windows Vista with a DirectX 10 compatible video card.

We used the benchmarking utility that comes with this game at 1440x900 and 1680x1050, setting image quality to “high” (with no anti-aliasing) and running the “Ranch Long” demo three times. The results below are expressed in frames per second and are an arithmetic average of the three results collected.

Farcry 2	1440x900	Difference
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	66.70	6%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	63.41	1%
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	62.64
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	56.49	11%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	50.01	25%

Farcry 2	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	56.97
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	49.34	15%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	47.36	20%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	46.62	22%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	41.52	37%

Aliens vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator is a DirectX 11 game that makes full use of tessellation and advanced shadow rendering. We used the Aliens vs. Predator Benchmark Tool developed by Rebellion. This program reads its configuration from a text file (our configuration files can be found here). We ran this program at 1440x900 and 1680x1050, with texture set at “low,” shadows set at “low,” no anisotropic filtering and no anti-aliasing.

Aliens vs. Predator	1440x900	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	28.2
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	21.2	33%
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	20.0	41%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	19.8	42%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	18.4	53%

Aliens vs. Predator	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	22.1
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	16.5	34%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	16.3	36%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	15.6	42%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	15.2	45%

Lost Planet 2

Lost Planet 2 is a game that uses a lot of DirectX 11 features, like tessellation (to round out the edges of polygonal models), displacement maps (added to the tessellated mesh to add fine grain details), DirectCompute soft body simulation (to introduce more realism in the “boss” monsters), and DirectCompute wave simulation (to introduce more realism in the physics calculations in water surfaces; when you move or when gunshots and explosions hit the water, it moves accordingly). We reviewed the video cards using Lost Planet 2 internal benchmarking features, choosing the “Benchmark A” (we know that “Benchmark B” is the one recommended for reviewing video cards, however, at least with us, results were inconsistent). We set graphics at “medium,” no anti-aliasing and DX11 at “full,” at 1440x900 and 1680x1050. The results below are the number of frames per second generated by each video card.

Lost Planet 2	1440x900	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	31.6
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	29.0	9%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	26.8	18%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	24.9	27%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	23.5	34%

Lost Planet 2	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	22.2
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	20.4	9%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	20.3	9%
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	19.5	14%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	19.2	16%

3DMark 11 Professional

3DMark 11 Professional measures Shader 5.0 (i.e., DirectX 11) performance. We ran this program at 1440x900 and 1680x1050, selecting the four graphics tests available and deselecting the other tests available. We used two image quality settings, “performance” and “extreme,” both at their default settings. The results being compared are the “GPU Score” achieved by each video card.

3DMark Vantage - Entry	1440x900	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	1345
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	1121	20%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	1030	31%
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	1004	34%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	946	42%

3DMark Vantage - Entry	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	1101
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	914	20%
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	874	26%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	834	32%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	825	33%

3DMark 11 - Performance	1440x900	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	1133
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	950	19%
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	939	21%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB DDR3)	887	28%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	878	29%

3DMark 11 - Performance	1680x1050	Difference
Radeon HD 6570 (512 MB GDDR5)	919
Radeon HD 5570 (1 GB DDR3)	770	19%
GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5)	736	25%
GeForce GT 430 (1 GB DDR3)	701	31%
GeForce GT 440 (1 GB)	692	33%

Conclusions

The 512 MB GDDR5 version of the Radeon HD 6570 was between 4% and 53% faster than both versions of the GeForce GT 440 (512 MB GDDR5 and 1 GB DDR3) in practically all games and simulations we ran.

The GeForce GT 440 was faster than the Radeon HD 6570 on Far Cry 2 at 1440 x 900 (6% advantage for the 512 MB GDDR5 version; the 1 GB DDR3 version achieved the same performance as the Radeon HD 6570), but at 1680 x 1050 the advantage was back with the Radeon HD 6570 (15% and 20% faster than the GeForce GT 440 512 MB GDDR5 and 1 GB DDR3, respectively). And on Crysis Warhead at 1440 x 900, the GeForce GT 440 512 MB GDDR5 was 8% faster than the reviewed card, while the GeForce GT 440 1 GB DDR3 and the reviewed card achieved the same performance. But at 1680 x 1050, the GeForce GT 440 512 MB GDDR5 and the reviewed card achieved the same performance level, with the reviewed card being 8% faster than the 1 GB DDR3 version of the GeForce GT 440.

In summary, if you are looking for a video card in the USD 75 price range, your best bet today is the Radeon HD 6570, which can be way faster than the GeForce GT 440. Of course, there are better video cards if you have more money available. But, for the occasional gamer who doesn’t mind lowering video quality settings and playing at lower resolutions, the new Radeon HD 6570 fits the bill.